#classical chinese

I did a post earlier about Classical Chinese, so here are some learning resources that can come in handy

Textbooks:

Fuller, Michael A. An Introduction to Literary Chinese.

Kroll, Paul W., et al., comp. A Student’s Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese.

Rouzer, Paul. A New Practical Primer of Literary Chinese

Yuan, Naiying, Hai-tao Tang, and James Geiss. Classical Chinese: A Basic Reader in Three Volumes.

Grammar:

Detailed and more in-depth grammar and structure explanations

Study Texts:

Guwendao Has a vast resources of different texts to study and read

A very interesting collection of texts from Korea at the time when Classical Chinese was used there. https://gimpomunhwa.or.kr/index.do https://gimpomunhwa.or.kr/html/site/gimpo/jungbong/edition/original/record/contents_19_05.html

A collection of various translated different texts

Translated annals text collection of the Ming China emperors

Collection of texts, you can easily search up specific ones

Online reader for texts

Other resources:

Dictionary: One of the few online dictionaries that I know of for Classical-Chinese to English translations. Also includes texts with English translations below, so quite useful for studying

The way that can be spoken of is extremely way-y.

I want to find friends to study with and complain to!!!

I have gotten back into it in a more serious capacity after a few years of nonsense, and am continuing (sigh) to work my way through Introduction to Literary Chinese by Michael A. Fuller.

Please reblog for greater sample size! Beginners or 古文大师 all please reply!

Section 1 Poem 9 of 300 Tang Poems

Translated by Witter Bunner (1881-1968) and Kiang Kang-hu (1883-1954)

It is almost as hard for friends to meet

As for the morning and evening stars.

Tonight then is a rare event,

Joining, in the candlelight,

Two men who were young not long ago

But now are turning grey at the temples.

...To find that half our friends are dead

Shocks us, burns our hearts with grief.

We little guessed it would be twenty years

Before I could visit you again.

When I went away, you were still unmarried;

But now these boys and girls in a row

Are very kind to their father's old friend.

They ask me where I have been on my journey;

And then, when we have talked awhile,

They bring and show me wines and dishes,

Spring chives cut in the night-rain

And brown rice cooked freshly a special way.

...My host proclaims it a festival,

He urges me to drink ten cups --

But what ten cups could make me as drunk

As I always am with your love in my heart?

...Tomorrow the mountains will separate us;

After tomorrow-who can say?

人生不相見，動如參與商。

今夕復何夕，共此燈燭光。

少壯能幾時，鬢發各已蒼。

訪舊半為鬼，驚呼熱中腸。

焉知二十載，重上君子堂。

昔別君未婚，兒女忽成行。

怡然敬父執，問我來何方。

問答乃未已，驅兒羅酒漿。

夜雨翦春韭，新炊間黃粱。

主稱會面難，一舉累十覲。

十覷亦不醉，感子故意長。

送吳進士巒歸江南・孤雲

自識君來幾度別

此回相別恨重重

干戈到處方多事

詩酒何時得再逢

遠樹參差江畔路

寒雲零落馬前峯

行行遇景傳新作

莫學嵇康盡放慵

Transcription into Korean Hangul

송오진사만귀강남・고운

자식군래기도별

차회상별한중중

간과도처방다사

시주하시득재봉

원수참차강반로

한운령락마전봉

행행우경전신작

막학혜강진방용

Translation into English

Sending off the scholar Wú Luán returning home to the south of the Yangtze ・ Koun

Since I got to know you, you have come and left many times

This time we separated, my regret was deep, so deep.

War is upon us and everywhere my work piled up around me

Poetry and wine – when can I indulge those again?

Faraway trees form an uneven path on the jagged riverbank

The cold clouds fall in fragments on that hill before my horse.

I journey, and journeying, I happen upon great scenery and write a piece